In a physical vapor deposition (PVD), or sputtering, chamber, a working gas is introduced through an aperture in the chamber to sputter target material onto a workpiece, such as a magnetic recording media substrate. In so-called reactive sputtering chambers, the working gas includes a species which chemically reacts with the sputter target material. For example, in the manufacture of magnetic disk drives, oxygen content in the sputter target for a recording layer may be supplemented with a reactive working gas including oxygen to help create grain insulation within the magnetic media layer.
During such reactive sputtering processes however, the oxygen gas may react within the chamber to form a particle at the aperture which can grow larger until the aperture is bridged to the target/cathode causing a short circuit and shutting down the sputtering chamber. Such a short between the aperture and target necessitates a chamber clean and/or hardware kit change and incurs lost manufacturing down time and reduced equipment utilization.